There are many types of medication packages provided with a plurality of independent or individual small containers connected to one another at a common top surface. Each individual container contains a predetermined set of one or more medication pills to be taken a specific day, and at a predetermined time by the patient. These type of packages are usually prepared in advance by a pharmacist or other health professional and it is the responsibility of the patient, or a caregiver thereof (for example a relative, spouse, visiting health professional, etc.), to take each set of pill(s) at the right time, the right day, and not to make any mistake on the specific individual container it is time to open.
In order to prevent the loss, the unintentional mix and/or the non-taking (omission or forgetting) of the medication at the proper time/day, there exists automatic medication dispensers. Among these dispensers, individual dispensers, located at the patient living place, are typically filled with one, two, three or even several predetermined pills that would be distributed to the patient whenever required but are not adapted to function with multiple individual container packages arranged into an array-type configuration, with all containers extending on a same side of a common (top) surface typically made out of coated paper or similar material covering the containers typically made out of plastic (PVC—polyvinyl chloride) material or the like. To get the proper selection of pills at any particular time, the patient needs first to properly locate the individual container among the multiple containers, and typically tear it off from the package. To access the pills of the specific individual container, the patient then typically needs to either peel off or perforate the top cover of the container using a sharp tool or the like.
Apparatuses for simultaneously opening all of the individual containers simultaneously, typically by chopping the entire top surface off using an elongated knife, are known in the art. Such an apparatus is only used by pharmacists that would have to recuperate all unused pills or simply for refill into another package, and would be useless to a patient. Known dispensers are not capable of dispensing the content of any selected individual container within an array, especially not dispensing the content into its original container.
There remains is a need for an improved dispenser for array-type packages.